The Girl Next Door--And How She Grew: An Autobiography

by Jane Powell

Book Overview

From an Amazon reader review: "Jane Powell is a really good actress, since to watch her in films such as "Holiday in Mexico", "Two Weeks with Love", "Nancy Goes to Rio", "A Date With Judy", "Rich,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688067573
• ISBN13: 9780688067571
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A surprisingly sobering tale from one of the brightest young stars of the 1950's

Jane Powell is a really good actress, since to watch her in films such as "Holiday in Mexico", "Two Weeks with Love", "Nancy Goes to Rio", "A Date With Judy", "Rich, Young and Pretty", and her best-known title, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", one would never know what a rough personal life she actually has had until fairly recently. Goes to prove, once again, that Hollywood public imagery was and is often a long way from the reality. One interesting point I do want to bring up is the sympathetic portrait of Louis B. Mayer that Powell paints, one that's shared by a great many other former MGM actresses in the biographies I've read. Mayer was a complicated man, sometimes tyrannical and abusive, but at the same time, as Powell and others state, it's plain that he really did see his actor and actress employees as part of a huge extended family with himself as the father-figure.

Jane Powell...Yes!

I read this book by Ms. Powell and I loved it although it was actually quite an unexpectedly truthful story. Did you know her mother tried to kill her? Yes, and so this saga can be viewed as a cautionary tale for parents who are contemplating pushing their child into show business and what can happen. It is stealing your child's childhood and putting her/him into adult situations. Ms Powell seems to have had an unhappy life until only recently due to her happy marriage to fellow child star, Dick Moore. You'll appreciate Ms. Powell's candor yet be shocked at the kind of childhood she endured. Clearly Ms. Powell learned eventually to like performing but she paid a big price for her parents ultimate decision to support themselves on her talents. If the girl next door has this kind of life, maybe things aren't as nice for her as we'd like to think.